“Are we men by essence aggressive or peaceful, vegetarian or carnivorous? What regarding climate change on a large time scale? Does God Exist? Is there anything following death? How were language and consciousness born? All these questions you can ask a paleoanthropologist!” Juan Luis Arsuaga will be happy to try to answer them, with the help of references drawn from his encyclopedic knowledge of human evolution. Around him, in his office at the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid, the objects speak for themselves: a replica of triceratops – this dinosaur from 66 million years ago -, a bust of Socrates , a portrait of Darwin, a Dogon landscape, drawings representing several human species – fromA handy man at theA wise man. And a pair of skis. “As soon as I can, when the administration leaves me alone, I’m going to hit the slopes or run in the middle of nature!” At 68, the most famous of Spanish scientists, the first to have made the front page of Nature, this palaeontologist, as well-endowed with diplomas as he is appreciated by the general public, gives the impression of a big child. The scratchy voice and the laughing eyes seem inhabited by a voracious and incessant curiosity. Like a sixth sense.
